page_title: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
section_title: Departure for America
hierarchical_section_title: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette / Departure from France / Departure for America
caption_attribution_description: Español: Pasajes de San Juan (Gipuzkoa) - Memorial del Marqués de La Fayette
context_page_description: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the Siege of Yorktown. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830.
  Lafayette was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne in south central France. He followed the family's martial tradition and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American revolutionary cause was noble, and he traveled to the New World seeking glory in it. He was made a major general at age 19, but he was initially not given American troops to command. He was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine but still managed to organize an orderly retreat, and he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he sailed for home to lobby for an increase in French support. He returned to America in 1780 and was given senior positions in the Continental Army.
context_section_description: Lafayette learned that the Continental Congress lacked funds for his voyage, so he bought the sailing ship Victoire with his own money for 112,000 pounds. He journeyed to Bordeaux, where Victoire was being prepared for her trip, and he sent word asking for information on his family's reaction. The response threw him into emotional turmoil, including letters from his wife and other relatives. Soon after departure, he ordered the ship turned around and returned to Bordeaux, to the frustration of the officers traveling with him. The army commander there ordered Lafayette to report to his father-in-law's regiment in Marseilles. De Broglie hoped to become a military and political leader in America, and he met with Lafayette in Bordeaux and convinced him that the government actually wanted him to go. This was not true, though there was considerable public support for Lafayette in Paris, where the American cause was popular. Lafayette wanted to believe it, and pretended to comply with the order to report to Marseilles, going only a few miles east before turning around and returning to his ship. Victoire set sail out of Pauillac on the shores of the Gironde on 25 March 1777. The two-month journey to the New World was marked by seasickness and boredom. The ship's captain Lebourcier intended to stop in the West Indies to sell cargo, but Lafayette was fearful of arrest, so he bought the cargo to avoid docking at the islands. He landed on North Island near Georgetown, South Carolina on 13 June 1777.
caption: Plaque at Pasaia in the Basque Country, Spain commemorating La Fayette's departure in 1777
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